U.S. Court Hands FBI’s ‘Stingray’ Major Setback

On April 1, privacy advocates won amajor victory when United States District JudgeDavid Campbell in Washington, D.C.ruled against a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) appeal for a delayin their “Stingray” cell phone surveillance case. Campbell determined that no “exceptional circumstances”existed to justify the FBI’s requestfor a two-year moratorium.

Although this lawsuit brought by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) didn’tcreate widespread headlines, it affects practicallyevery person in the country who uses a cell phone.

Essentially, what the FBI did was set in placewhat are called Stingray tracking devices that impersonateactual cell phone towers. As such, anyonewithin reach of these fake towers will have their cell phones fooled into linking up to theirintercepting technology because their phones believethey’re real towers.

In a January 10 Slate.com article, Ryan Gallagher, a journalist specializing in national security andprivacy issues, wrote, “Functioning as a so-called‘cell-site simulator,’ Stingray is a sophisticatedportable surveillance device. The equipment isdesigned to send out a powerful signal thatcovertly dupes phones within a specific area into hopping onto a fake network.”

Once information is gathered from a target,that individual’s movements can be tracked inreal time anywhere he travels. Of course, the surveillancenet also spreads to unwitting, innocent bystanders who end up caught in the operationsimply because they drove or walked by one ofthe fake towers.

During the court hearings, other problems became apparent, such as the FBI’s insistence onnot obtaining search warrants for Stingray. Also,FBI officials made these electronic surveillancedevices available to state police units in at leastfour states.

The judge has ordered that the FBI has until August 1 to produce all non-classified documents related to Stingray for review by EPIC attorneys.

Victor Thorn is a hard-hitting researcher, journalist and author of over 40 books.